USS Penumbra Sim Narrative, SD 202006.05 ANNOUNCEMENT: . This is actually the fifth installment of Lt. Tibris' sim plot with the Ivorez. Bridge, Main Engineering, Cargo Bay, & Delta Flight: . The Penumbra was under the command of Acting Captain Relok and Acting First Officer Jason Carter. Capt. Taylor and Lt. Col. Patterson relinquished their command codes to protect the ship's security while they are on the friendly Kyrathian ship (see below). They found themselves in a battle zone near the Nursery Moon at a Gas Giant seeking to retrieve the Kyrathian eggs left there within a shielded stasis field. . Around them there were three Kyrathian Swarm Colony Ships actively engaged with eight Delta Flyers, 12 Montgolfier mylar decoy balloons, and a badly damaged Aslan Frigate. Six Energy-Siphoning Pods remained from the original two dozen they'd encountered, and these six were homing in on the decoys (for the moment). . The Penumbra was attempting a quick "Mind-The-Gap" procedure to pry open a hole in the shielding around the eggs in order to beam as many as possible aboard. The ship was at Red Alert with MIRAGE engaged. . Lt. Cmdr. Relok was at the Science console again, and Lt. Cmdr. Carter was at his usual place at the Helm. This left all three of the command seats empty at the moment. Lt. Tabeshk Tibris was at his usual post at the Operations Console, and Lt. Denovan Hawke manned the Tactical Console. . In the Cargo Bay, LtJG Katarina Hawke, the ship's Head Nurse, had cleared space to begin receiving the Kyrathian Eggs. There were a few other medical technicians, a few engineering assistants, and a handful of Marines scattered around the Bay. Everyone was properly armored or shielded against any Spores that might come with the Eggs. Kat glanced around, concerned there wouldn't be enough space for the hundred or more eggs they expected.

. Down in Main Engineering, Lt. Cmdr. Bevin MacArdry was using all the tricks she could muster to keep the power levels up. She was having to power the MIRAGE system, shields, phasers, propulsion, and keep Bug Zapper on hot standby, not to mention prepare for the "Grabby Hands" dual tractor beam and the actual transport of a hundred or more Eggs! In addition to all that, she was coordinating teams that were manufacturing more of the Montgolfier decoy balloons if they were needed. . Relok looked up from the Science console. "Tabby, that moon is riddled with metallic and crystalline structures. There's no way we're getting any kind of transporter lock. So, we're beaming whatever is there over here whenever we can get a hole." . Carter added, "Tabby, we're only gonna have a couple seconds ... and I doubt the MIRAGE will hold with the amount of power required!" . Tabby grunted, "I realize that, Carter. Not sure what to do about that. We're gonna cut it close is all I can say." . Relok tapped his commbadge. "Kat, we have no idea what we're going to get with our transporters. I can probably guarantee only to get lifesigns and not rock and metal, but .... be ready for anything." . Kat's voice came back from the Cargo Bay, "Understood, Commander." She paused and then added, "Relok, we've cleared as much space as we can, so hopefully we get the eggs and not moon." . Hawke said, "How are we doing with this? The spread is ready in conjunction with the Delta Flyers." . Tabby added, "If needed, I can fire the Bug Zapper a max of 3 times in succession. I can only use Grabby Hand's once." . Relok turned to look behind him to the Tactical station, "Hawke, we need that modified probe torpedo that punches that first hole through the shielding, then Tabby has to do Grabby Hands and the transporter." . Hawke blushed slightly, "Right. I got overzealous a bit, hold on. Let me get that. Give me a moment."

. Carter added without turning around, "Mind you, when we last used the Mind-The-Gap procedure, we weren't having to do it under evasive maneuvers!" . Tabby grunted, "True, Carter, but we have to try at least." . And just as they were getting set up, the first Kyrathian Swarm Colony Ship launched the next wave of Energy-Siphoning Pods. A dozen of them came streaking out of the ship headed for Delta Flight and the Montgolfier decoys. . MGny Derek Hines was with Delta Flight. They formed an inverted wedge headed face-first towards the incoming pods, phasers and torpedoes on full spread. He called the Penumbra, "We'll hold as long as we can, but against these odds? It's not gonna be long before we're overwhelmed." . "Eeep!" Tabby squeaked when he saw them. . "Focus, people," Relok said. "Let Delta and Montgolfier do their thing. Hawke, punch us a hole, at your leisure, Lieutenant." Which of course meant "hurry the heck up!" . Tabby nodded and focused, "Ready when you are, Hawke!" . Hawke accessed several functions on his console. "Hmm. Okay. This is going to be completely unconventional. Tabby, I'm going to fire that probe torpedo, then fire three more in a spread and hit all three with phasers to detonate them instead of the manual detonation. On my mark detonate the probe." . Tabby nodded, "Ready." . "Mark!" Hawke said as he pressed the button. . Tabby counted it down, "Detonation in three ... two ... one ...." . Just as the probe and its accompanying torpedoes detonated, weakening the Nursery Moon's shield for Tabby to use the Grabby Hands modified tractor beams, the second Kyrathian ship launched another dozen Pods. That brought the number of them up to two dozen! . Monitoring the situation from Engineering, Bevin saw the need and launched another flight of Montgolfier decoy balloons to attract some of the Pods away from Delta Flight and the Penumbra.

. Just as she did this, the third Kyrathian ship launched ... fighter craft? Six fighters entered the combat arena, headed for the Delta Flyers! . Carter rolled the ship to minimize their profile to the Energy-Siphoning Pods. As he did he said, "If a single one of those things makes contact ... we won't have enough power for the transport." . Hawke grunted, "Our timing isn't off, Commander." He took advantage of the reoriented ship and used phasers to take out any outlying Pods in their immediate vicinity. . With a hole in the shielding, Relok provided his best guess for coordinates of lifesigns to the transporter system. "Coordinates for the beam are laid in ... best I can." It was now or never. . Carter kicked in the maneuvering thrusters and drifted the ship closer. "I've got the runabout's coordinates. That break in the shields gave us what we needed!" . Tabby counted down, "Beaming in three ... two ...." . And then the first beaming of eggs (or whatever) took place and the Cargo Bay was quickly filled with widely scattered ovoid-shaped objects a meter or two tall, about 2 dozen of them. Tabby said, "I need somebody to check and contain those eggs. Babies or not, they're Swarm until they meet the Pure Plant." . The ship's power levels suddenly dropped to only 85% after the Grabby Hands and mass transport, but quickly bounced back to 90% as Bevin rerouted power. . Relok tapped his commbadge, "Kat! Lieutenant, report! What'd we get?" . Kat responded, "Bridge, we've got eggs." She quickly scanned them and added, "And they're undamaged as far as I can tell." . Relok answered, "Acknowledged, prep for round two!" . Kat said, "Bridge, we're good for the next round, we've got the room."

. Relok spun his chair, "Hawke, keep us secure for a few more seconds." He spun back, "Carter, hold us still." He checked his sensors. "Tabby, I think there's more down there, keep the Grabby Hands holding and ready another beam. Here's some more guessed coordinates ..." he transferred data to the Ops console. . "Understood," Tabby said as he readied another mass transport. "Beaming again in three ... two ...." . The latest beaming brought aboard another 10 intact eggs, along with 5 that appeared to be broken ... or hatched? Kat called from the Cargo Bay, "Bridge we've got 10 more intact eggs, but 5 of them are broken ... or hatched ... I'm not sure yet, scans are having a hard time deciphering." . And while the Penumbra made the second beaming, Delta Flight engaged with the Kyrathian Fighters. It became a dogfight in a tangle of Energy-Siphoning Pods! Only ... the Pods didn't bother the Kyrathians. Hawke barked an order to them, "Attack pattern Theta Six!" . They heard Hines calling out, "Delta 2, 3, 5, you've got bogeys on your six! Break off! Break off!" . Carter spun to look at Relok, "We're losing this fight, Relok." . Hawke grunted, "Like hell we are, sirs! Are we ready for stupid Borg tactics?" . Relok looked up at Carter. "We need to get as many as we can and then get out of here. Ready the slipstream. We'll try one last round of beaming and then surrender whatever remains." . After the second beaming, the Penumbra's power levels dropped to 70%. Bevin's efforts quickly restored it to 80%, but that's all she could get.

. Hawke hadn't received any response to his suggested "stupid Borg tactics", and with the situation as tense as it was, decided to go ahead with his plan without waiting for permission. He set all the quantum torpedoes he had available (save one) to scatter through the Pod field to take out as many as possible. The one he'd saved he set to punch through the lead Kyrathian ship, detonating only after penetration through its hull! He launched them without waiting for orders. . Then, a call came through the ship-to-ship channel. It was Lt. T'Lin calling from the Cerberus, "Penumbra, Ivorez said you are in trouble, need some friendly faces?" . Tabby responded, "Uhh ... it's looking rough. We're having trouble getting the eggs. We got some, hopefully all." . Relok ignored the call from T'Lin, too busy to answer at the moment. Instead he said, "Tabby, one last try to get as many as we can." . Tabby nodded grimly, "Last time trying the transporter beam. In three ... two ...." . Carter glanced at a flashing light on his console, "I'm losing power to starboard aft thrusters. MIRAGE failing ...," he trailed off. . The MIRAGE cloaking system suddenly winked out as the ship's power systems dropped below the 60% threshold. Without the cloak, the Energy-Siphoning Pods suddenly detected the Penumbra itself and made a bee-line towards it! . One of the Kyrathian Fighters suddenly scored a direct photon hit on one of the Delta Flyers. It was destroyed in a flash of fireball! But Delta Flight and the Penumbra had taken out 12 of the 24 Pods and 2 of the 6 Fighters and had lost only the 1 Flyer and 8 Decoys (so far).

. The third transporter beam brought aboard 3 writhing, slimy worms about a meter long! They immediately wriggled towards the nearest living thing! Kat barked out, "Get back!" The medics quickly jumped back from the creatures as containment fields fell around the slimy worms. She tapped her commbadge, "Bridge, we've got three wiggly, slimy worms down here, about a meter in length and they seem hungry!" . Tabby asked, "Is everyone safe? I don't know if the Pure Plant can change them ...." . Relok responded, "Ah, there's your hatched eggs, Lieutenant! Those must be larvae! Try to get them corralled somewhere and get some force fields around them!" . Kat's response seemed a little tense and filled with sarcasm, "Jeez, really? I thought it was! Good, but I've got containment fields up, but I'm not sure how long they'll last. They are trying to get to the closest living bodies." . Tabby said, "They must have just hatched, which means ... get the other eggs contained!" . Kat replied, "I have containment fields in place." . Just then, Hawke's quantum torpedo spread engulfed the Pods and two of the four remaining Kyrathian Fighters in a brilliant flash of energy! They were all destroyed. The one that was aimed for the Colony Ship got through and caused significant damage! "Yes!" Hawke cried, doing a fist-pump in the air. . Relok barked, "Carter, get Delta back in the bay then get us the heck out of here, that's the best we can do!"

. Carter glanced over his shoulder, "Alright, we're getting out of here!" He contacted the Flyers, "Delta, jump to max warp, heading 257 mark 311. We'll rendezvous with you when able. Penumbra out." Then he called Bevin in Engineering, "Engineering, ALL power to warp integrity, NOW." . But before the Penumbra could jump to warp, the Cerberus dropped out of slipstream and immediately opened fire with its WAR Drivers on one of the Kyrathian Colony Ships. This was quickly followed with the same tactic Hawke had just used with burrowing and delayed detonations of quantum torpedoes. In a matter of seconds, the second Kyrathian Ship is disabled and sent drifting with a gaping hull in its belly! . The Penumbra, on the other hand, maneuvered to escape from the fray, and began to charge its slipstream to jump away but ... the slipstream drive FAILS! There wasn't enough power! The computer's voice announced, "WARNING! Power dropping to dangerous levels, now at 47%." . Tabby grumbled, "Yeah, yeah, shut up ship, working on it damnit." He called Engineering, "Bevin, honey, I could really use that power!" . Bevin sent all the power she could find, routing it from non-essential areas, but they were tapped out. She managed to get the levels above 60%, causing the warning lights to go off, but ... still not good. . Carter announced, "There's just not enough power for the slipstream! I can't even get the warp field shaped right! If we jump to warp now it'll just rip the ship apart. Navigational sensors are in and out. I'm practically flying blind right now!" . Relok barked back, "Fly it blind then! Get us away from the fight, just a light year or two to catch our breath!" . Suddenly, Delta 7 took a hit from a Kyrathian Fighter, followed up by an Energy-Siphoning Pod attaching to it. Seconds later, it imploded. . Tabby called Engineering, "Bevin, can you find any more power? Like 10% more for me, dear?"

. Relok said, "Just get us out of the system, Carter. Warp 1 for a few minutes. Hawke, shut down weapon systems to provide us the power to jump to warp." . Hawke nodded, "Dump everything from weapons, shields, and life support." . Carter grumbled, "Computer, initiate energy shunt from all weapons arrays, and relay plasma burnoff through the hull plating to the structural integrity field." . The computer buzzed, "Warning. Plasma discharge from weapons systems ..." . But Carter interrupted, "I know the damn risks! Override!" . Tabby tensed, "Come on, come on!" . And then, with the extra power and overrides and warning lights and blown fuses the Penumbra manages to jump to warp ... barely! Cerberus and what was left of Delta Flight also jumped to warp, headed the same direction. The Away Team: . An Away Team consisting of Capt. Zak Taylor, Lt. Col. Travis Patterson, Dr. Shadow K'Trevala, Lt. T'Lin, and Gny. Khalgon were aboard the friendly Kyrathian Colony Ship visiting with their "Pure Plant" called the Ivorez. . This plant intelligence, the Ivorez, had asked for the Penumbra's help to either cure the Wild Growth, the insane world-spanning plant of the Kyrathians' Homeworld, or to eradicate it. It's madness was what drove the Kyrathian insectoids to Swarm. . Patterson was reviewing a data file on the PADD built into the arm of his Combat Armor, trying to come up with some kind of plan of action. T'Lin slowly wandered around the room, examining the Plant and all its various tendrils and node clusters, Khalgon following her protectively. . Zak spoke, "Ivorez, we'll do what we can for the Wild Growth. But in order to do anything, we have to get going. Was there anything else you wanted?" T'Lin's translation algorithm converted his words into Kyrathian glyphs that appeared on one of the translucent bulb-like protrusions of the Plant.

. A moment later, new glyphs appeared scrolling onto the "screen", and T'Lin's algorithm automatically translated them into Federation Standard English and provided the auto-generated voice of the Ivorez, "No, Captain, thank you in advance. I wish you success." . But Shadow asked, "Hold on a moment. Captain, please?" Zak nodded and Shadow continued, "Ivorez, may I examine you to understand you better, so that I can see what might be needed to try to help the Wilding recover her sanity, if it is possible?" . The Ivorez responded, "You are the telepath, Shadow, correct? Proceed." . Shadow approached the largest cluster of nodes on the thickest trunk of the Plant, removing the gloves from his biosuit. He placed his hands gently on the Ivorez's main nodule and began reading what the Pure Plant was like, and how it might be different from a Wilding. While there, he shared what he could of the Federation and their purpose in trying to help. As he finished, he bowed in respect. "I thank you. This will be an experience I will cherish all my days." . T'Lin stepped up. "Where will you go, Ivorez? We cannot promise you will not be considered targets by our allies, despite our shared information. They may still see you as hostile." . The Ivorez answered, "We must return to our water world. We have plans there, and there are ... conditions ... that are favorable." He paused and then said, "You must go, I sense your people are in danger!" . Zak clued in on that last word. "Danger?" He turned to Patterson. . But it was T'Lin who spoke, "We cannot help them from here." She turned to Patterson, "Where is your ship?" . Zak called, "Shadow, T'Lin, Khalgon, time to go! Patterson, call AEGIS."

. Patterson gave a nod, tapping his armPADD, "AEGIS. Get us out." In seconds, the Away Team had rematerialized aboard the Cerberus. It was a bit tight with 5 people on board, but there was room enough. It was designed for a pilot and 4 personnel, and could carry as many as 7 in a pinch. . Patterson immediately moved to the pilot's seat and logged in. He glanced over his shoulder, "Hope we have enough seatbelts!" He turned back to the front, his fingers flying across the HUD as he said, "AEGIS, all power to slipstream. Adjust field variance to teardrop configuration. Engage on my mark." . T'Lin quickly stepped over to a seat and opened a commlink, "Penumbra, Ivorez said you are in trouble, need some friendly faces?" . Tabby responded from the Penumbra, "Uhh ... it's looking rough. We're having trouble getting the eggs. We got some, hopefully all." . Patterson adjusted himself in his chair and then said, "AEGIS ... engage the slipstream." . T'Lin held onto her seat, closing her eyes and hoping that her friends were all right. . Several long seconds later, the Cerberus dropped out of slipstream in the middle of a mess. There were three Kyrathian Swarm Colony Ships, though one looked disabled, nearly two dozen Energy-Siphoning Pods, though most of these looked fried, four Kyrathian Fighter craft with two more smoldering husks, seven Delta Flyers and one clump of debris that must have been the other one, and one heavily damaged Aslan Frigate. . Patterson immediately opened fire with the Cerberus' WAR Drivers on one of the Kyrathian Colony Ships. This was quickly followed with a burrowing and delayed detonation quantum torpedo. In a matter of seconds, the second Kyrathian Ship was disabled and sent drifting with a gaping hole in its belly!

. Zak leaned forward, tensely scanning AEGIS's sensor screen, "Where are they?" He was looking for the Penumbra in its MIRAGE cloak. AEGIS had been programmed to know what to look for to detect the hidden ship. Only ... it wasn't hidden. "There she is!" he pointed at the Penumbra. . The voice of the artificial intelligence that helped fly the Cerberus said, "Backseat driving is highly ill-advised." AEGIS flew the ship straight towards the Penumbra. . Suddenly, just off their port side, one of the Kyrathian Fighters scored a hit on one of the Delta Flyers. Almost immediately after, one of the Energy-Siphoning Pods attached itself to the Flyer. In seconds, the tiny ship collapsed on itself. . Curt orders came from Carter, "Delta, jump to max warp, heading 257 mark 311. We'll rendezvous with you when able. Penumbra out." The remaining six Delta Flyers quickly winked into warp. A few seconds passed tensely as Zak watched the Penumbra flicker before it, too, zipped away at warp speed. The Cerberus followed behind.

@everyone Another Sim Log Narrative is posted! Enjoy!